


Time Eater

by Cookies_and_Biscuits



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 3rd person pov, Abuse, Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Backstory, Creatures, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Flashbacks, Gay Keith, Hurt Lance, Insecurity, Langst, M/M, Multiple Pov, Past Abuse, Post Season 3, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre Season 4, Sad lance, Self Esteem Issues, bi lance, de aged, deaged, everyone is in their original lions, how do you tag, keith is bad at feelings, keith pov, klance, lance de ages, lance is a mess, lance pov, venomous creature
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-01-23 22:48:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12518336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cookies_and_Biscuits/pseuds/Cookies_and_Biscuits
Summary: Lance is bitten by a mysterious creature on an inhabited planet. The venom in the creature makes the person who got bit getDe-aged by a year every day that goes by! Lance wakes up every day a year younger than the day before and has no memory of anything that happened anytime after the age he wakes up in! Lance has to relive his past and the rest of the team is left with no clue as to what Lance's past is.Will the team figure out a way to reverse the effects or will Lance be reduced to nothing but a memory?!?!





	1. The time eater

**Author's Note:**

> This is an Idea I've had for a while so I'm glad to finally be doing it!! I hope I don't totally butcher the idea!!! I hope you enjoy!! Feedback is always appreciated!! Also, if you notice any mistakes please tell me!!

"Why are we on this planet again?" Lance asked as they made their way through a dark forest.

"Well, Lance, the inhabitants of this planet have some information on the Galra that we may need in the future." Shiro explained as they headed off in the direction of a village they saw while landing. "The princess says its valuable information so, here we are." Shiro sighed as he was almost hit in the face with a tree branch.

"Ya ya." Lance scowled while struggling to get over a fallen tree trunk.

"Stop complaining Lance." Keith rolled his eyes as hey swiftly maneuvered himself over the tree.

Lance simply grumbled as he kept walking forward. Allura had told them that the plant had many mysterious animals as well as plants, but she hadn't told them that it was covered in forests. The entire trip felt like a long walk in the woods. There were strange animal calls and noises around every corner, and most of the plants looked monstrous. Some were even luminescent. It looked like the world from the movie Avatar. Probably even more exuberant. They had even seen some creatures that had more than two, four, or even six limbs. Aliens were their only explanation.

"This place gives me the creeps." Hunk admitted as he carefully stepped over some weird looking rocks.

"I agree. How far to the village." Pidge crossed her arms and looked at Shiro with a questioning look.

"I don't really know. Allura said to just go North when we made it down here and we would eventually get there." Shiro put his hands on his hips as everyone stopped and took a break from walking. They had been trekking through these woods for about a full Earth hour.

"Too bad the COMM's aren't working because of this dense greenery." Lance tiredly leaned back on a tree and folded his arms.

"Sorry guys. We're just going to have to keep walking." Shiro sighed again and turned around to start walking again.

Lance was about to get up and walk with them as he saw a creature that looked similar to a squirrel but bigger and with weird markings on it. It was kind of cute. It was a grayish blue color with black markings along its cheeks and back. It had a long tail that curved at the end, and its eyes were completely yellow with an electric blue iris. Lance leaned down and put his hand out for it like it was a dog.

"Hey little guy, come on over here." Lance said in a smooth voice while waving his right hand around. The little creature inched forward a bit and just stared.

"Lance, that thing could be dangerous. And we don't have time to stop right now." Shiro blatantly stated as he stopped and watched the creature slowly inch closer to Lance.

"That thing is probably poisonous or something. I mean what kind of an animal would want to get close to you anyway." Keith smirked and folded his arms in a mocking way.

"A lot of animals for your information. I used to have a dog you know." Lance scowled and spat back.

"Well what happened to it? Did it run away from you?" Keith's smirk grew even wider. If that was possible.

"Not exactly." Lance turned back to look at the creature and frowned. He did have a dog once. He had begged his parents for one for years. His mom had finally convinced his father to say yes and as soon as they got the dog it had gotten very attached to Lance. It would even try to protect Lance when... Things happened. But since his father didn't like that, the dog mysteriously disappeared. Lance's father had told him it ran away, and they never got another pet after that.

Keith, feeling a little regret to what he had said since it seemed to upset Lance, huffed and put his hands on his hips. Turning around so he couldn't see Lance. Shiro was checking his COMM's to see if they had any signal,and Hunk was staring at the creature with Pidge. The creature was almost in reach of Lance when it suddenly jumped on him and bit his hand. Lance screeched and fell from his squatting position, landing on his butt on the cold forest floor. He started waving his arm around to try and get the thing off. The creature finally had enough and jumped off of Lance's hand, leaving a small bite mark. It scurried away and disappeared into the forest.

"I told you!" Keith had turned around and had a smug look on his face. Shiro sighed for the third time that day and put his hand on his face. Pidge laughed, and Hunk gave a small smile while he tried to help Lance up.

"Whatever." Lance rubbed his hand and sighed seeing as the creature had obviously ripped through their black under suit. It wasn't bleeding too bad and it just looked like a cat bite. But it hurt like hell. Lance had had enough of their laughter and disappointment and pushed past Shiro to walk away. Shiro sadly walked after him, and soon the rest of the group followed.

They had finally reached the village and were spreading out to try and find whoever was in charge here. Pidge had happily shouted as she pointed to what looked like a sort of mansion and they all stepped up to knock on what they guessed was the front door. An alien a little shorter than Shiro had answered. It had four eyes and a small mouth. The top of its head was pointed slightly and it had a skinny torso with digilegs. It had 3 fingers on each hand and what looked like hoofs for feet. The creature looked confused and backed away from the Paladins.

"Hello. we're here to see your, ruler?" Shiro questionably asked. "We're the paladins of Voltron. Apparently your ruler has some important information on the Galra."

"Ah I see. We've heard of you. Well., our ruler has some information. I'm not sure if it will be helpful though. It's just about some ship that had crashed on our planet a while ago. My name is Glok, I'm his servant." The creature had a strange and unfamiliar accent. It stepped aside and bowed down as the Paladins entered. 

Everyone entered and started to look around. The decor was simple and mostly a tan brown with Blue highlights here and there. It was pretty simple looking. The house's were mostly made up of wood and it seemed like a kind of cabin. As they walked, they passed many rooms and hallways that looked like a maze. This was the biggest house in the village, but it looked much bigger from the inside.

They were led upstairs and brought to a room that was much larger than the others. Another one of the aliens was seated in a throne in the far side of the room. This alien was bigger than the one that had brought them here. And it was dressed more formally. He had his head resting on his hand and he like he was seriously happy to see them. Lance wondered if it was because he was happy to tell them the information or if it was because talking to them was more entertaining than sitting in what looked like an otherwise empty room.

"Hello, my name is Shiro and I'm the black paladin of Voltron. We're here for any information you may have on the Galra." Shiro took off his helmet and bowed. Allura had told them there was breathable air here so it was safe. Everyone else took of their helmets and did the same.

"Yes yes of course. Please come over here black paladin while my people tend to your team." The alien happily said as he got up from his seat and met Shiro in the middle of the room. While they had their little talk, two other servants had joined Glok and they were asking questions rapid fire. Questions like, "Are you thirsty? Do you need something to eat? Are you injured?"

Everyone kindly answered and the servants left them alone to wait for Shiro and their ruler. It wasn't that long of a talk so they didn't have to wait long. Shiro and the alien started to make their way over to the group and gestured for them to follow along as the alien led them out of the castle with a proud smile.

"Thank you for the information your highness." Shiro happily chirped and smiled back at the alien.

"No problem. I hope it will be of use to you. Have a safe trip back to your lions. There are some nasty creatures out there. Like the Time Eater and the Poisonous Harple." The alien smiled back.

"Whats a Time Eater and Poisonous harpoo or whatever?" Pidge asked while adjusting her glasses.

"Oh, well the Poisonous Harple is just a poisonous little creature that can poison you. But it can be treated." The alien smiled. "And the time eater can reduce ones age. But you don't have to worry about that. They're so rare only two of my people has ever seen one." He reassured them and put his hands on his hips like he hadn't just said something terrifying.

"What happened to the two that saw it?" Hunk asked, a little worried.

"Oh well, one of them died." The alien said in a sing song voice. "It was nice getting to meet you. Goodbye!" He slammed the door and left the paladins scared and worried.

They started heading back through the forest. Everyone was worried about what the alien had said. Even if the creature named the Time Eater was rare, there were still many other creatures out there. And none of them doubted that they might be deadly. Slowly but surely, they had finally made it out of the forest and to their lions. Hunk cheered happily and ran to his lion while the others trailed behind. They were happy nothing seriously bad had happened while they were there. And luckily no one got hurt other than Lance and his injured hand. But since it wasn't that bad, no one really paid it any mind. They boarded their lions and left the planet. Once out of the atmosphere, they had connection to their COMM's once more.

"Allura, we got the information and we're heading back to the castle." Shiro proudly explained as they made their way into space.

"Wonderful! I am truly sorry that i forgot to tell you the COMM's probably wouldn't work on this planet. But it seems you made it just fine!" Allura cheered.

They had finally made it back to the castle and everyone hurried out of their lions. Exhausted from their long trek through the forest, they all rested in the common area and relaxed while Shiro relayed the information he had learned to Allura. Coran had said he was going to check on the castle, and everyone else satisfyingly drank from their water pouches.

"Hey Lance, is your hand okay? You've been rubbing it every couple of minutes." Hunk asked and tried to take a closer look at Lance's hand.

"Ya its fine. I've been through much worse anyway." Lance explained and smiled.

"Like that explosion back when you saved Coran?" Pidge asked and gave him a questioning look.

"Oh, uh ya sure." Lance finally realized what he said might cause suspicion and lied.

"He's probably injured himself more times than he can count." Keith said with a smirk and leaned back on the couch.

"Whatever mullet." Lance wasn't really in the mood for fighting since they had just spent hours walking around on a planet that seemed like it had come out of a fairy tale.

"Lance used to come to school with a ton of scrapes and bruises. His siblings sure were rough." Hunk said between sips of water. Everyone but Hunk seemed to find that a little odd. Keith looked a little surprised and Pidge gave him yet another questioning look.

"Ya, ha, my siblings. We would always wrestle and stuff like that." Lance sat up and lied through his teeth. He hoped no one noticed. And it looked like they didn't. Either that or no one said anything. Pidge just shrugged and Keith went back to sipping his water. 

Shiro walked back from talking to Allura and told them all they had free time and could do whatever they wanted. Keith went to train with Shiro of course, Hunk went to the kitchen to get something to eat and probably cook a delicious dinner, and Pidge went to tinker with the green lion some more. Lance headed off to his room, stating he was going to get an early nights sleep. Lance walked through the hallways and sighed. His hand still hurt, but it wasn't that bad. He hadn't been lying when he said he had been through much worse. Back when he lived on Earth, Life had been a lot harder. He got hurt a lot more. Which was almost surprising for him since they were in war. Almost.

Lance finally reached his room and got changed. He was too tired to shower so he just flopped down on his bed. He got into the covers and stared at the ceiling. Sighing, he rolled over and closed his eyes, trying to sleep. His head finally lolled as his tiredness caught up with him, and he drifted off to dream wonderland. 

\------

Lance yawned and opened his eyes. He stared at the sheets and the bed he was in. He looked around the room he was in and rolled over to lay on his back. Ignoring the different surroundings, he closed his eyes again.

wait a minute.

Jerking upwards, Lance found himself in a place he had never seen before. There was almost nothing in the room except the bed, drawers, a desk, two doors, one that presumably led to a bathroom, and little blue lion slippers. The room was white with a splash of light blue and there was a low hum. Lance froze. He closed his eyes once more, hoping maybe when he opened them he would be back at the Garrison. It didn't work.

Lance jumped out of bed and looked around the room once more. He was starting to panic. Where was he? Had he been captured or something? Did the Garrison somehow change every rooms decor in the middle of the night? And where was Hunk? He was supposed to be rooming with him. Lance couldn't come up with an explanation. What the heck had happened?

Lance counted to ten, and slowly made his way to the door on the other side of the room. He hoped this one wasn't the bathroom and put his hand on a scanner attached to the wall. When was the Garrison so high tech? Oh ya, he might not be in the Garrison anymore. The door swooshed open, startling Lance as he jumped back away from the door. Since it looked like the door only led to a hallway, he slowly stuck his head out to look around. Nothing threatening but he still didn't know where he was. Lance stepped out of the room and the door automatically shut behind him. Lance started to make his way down the hallway. Unsure of where he was going, he just wandered. He had passed many closed doors and rooms and decided not to enter them for fear of what was on the other side. He had finally came to an opening in the wall. It looked like a kitchen. Lance had started to enter when he noticed too guys sitting at a table. Lance jumped back and hid behind the wall. He peeked back through the doorway and looked at the two men sitting there.

Wait, Keith Kogane from the Garrison and Takashi Shirogane from the Kerberos mission!?!? What the heck where they doing here? Was this the Garrison? Wasn't Shiro missing? Why was Keith there? Didn't he drop out? Lance was done guessing. He gathered all his courage and stormed into what seemed like the kitchen. Keith and Shiro looked up at him and stared as he walked over.

"Okay Keith, where the hell am I and what the actual heck are you doing here with THE Shiro?" Lance emphasized the "THE" and folded his arms, trying to look intimidating.

"Um what the heck are you talking about? We're in the castle and THE Shiro has been with us since we got here." Keith answered and also emphasized the "THE".

"What? That doesn't make any sense! Where are we?!" Lance yelled and started walking around to Shiro. "I thought you were missing but I guess not. Where the heck are we?!" Lance didn't care if he was talking to his hero. He needed to know where the heck he was. Shiro just looked at him confused.

"Um Lance, can you calm down a little." Shiro said and quirked an eyebrow while smiling nervously.

"No!!! I don't know where I am right now!! And how did you know who I was?!?!" Lance almost screamed as he threw up his hands in a stressed manner.

"Hey guys, whats with all the yelling in here?" Hunk walked through the door and started to make his way to the table.

"HUNK!!!!!" Lance said relieved as he smiled and ran over to Hunk. He hugged him and started jumping up and down.

"Wooooah there buddy! Whats wrong? And why are you even shorter than me..? You’re like, almost down to my chin now. I thought you were at least up to my headband..." Hunk questioned and pulled Lance back from his tight hug. Lance was always a little shorter than hunk but not by this much.

"What do you mean? I've always been this short. That doesn't matter though, where the hell are we?" Lance switched his smile to a serious face.

"We're in the castle dude. And no, you haven't always been this short. You grew like an inch or two a few months before we were basically abducted into space." Hunk said and gave him a confused look. Why doesn't Lance remember? What was wrong?

"WHAT!?!?!? SPACE!?!?!" Lance yelled and put his hands in his hair, pulling slightly. "Why the heck are we in space?!?!? HOW DID WE GET INTO SPACE?!?!" Lance screamed and started pacing again.

"Woah woah woah, slow down there dude!!" Hunk stopped Lance from pacing. "Whats wrong?" 

"Whats wrong? WHATS WRONG?!?! I don't know where the heck I am and how the heck I got here!!" Lance screamed in his face and started panicking again. He was hyperventilating and his eyes were darting from place to place. 

"Okay Lance, calm down okay? We need you to calm down so you can tell us what you know." Shiro had gotten up from the table and had walked over to where Hunk and Lance were standing. Keith had worry etched in his face, and he had gotten up to walk over to where they were standing as well.

"Why the hell is everybody yelling in here?" Pidge walked into the kitchen, arms crossed and a scowl on her face. She did not look happy.

"Pidge!! Pidge, Pidge, Pidge. Where in the world are we?" Lance slipped out of Hunk's grasp and walked over to Pidge, grabbing her shoulders.

"Um what are you talking about?" Pidge pushed on Lance's chest and escaped his hold on her.

"Look I know we just met like yesterday, but you've got to tell me man. No one else here is telling me much but your a smart guy, you should be able to explain." Lance looked into her eyes with a nervous smile and his brows knitted with worry. He grabbed Pidge around the chest this time to get a better hold. He looked like he was going insane.

"First of all, I still have no idea whats going on. Second, I don't care if you call me a guy, but I am a girl you know. So if you could not touch the merchandise." Pidge pushed Lance off herself with more force this time and retreated towards Hunk.

"What?!?!?" You're a girl!! When did that happen?!?! What the hell is going on!!!" Lance yelled and collapsed into himself, falling onto the floor with tears of frustration brimming his eyes.

"Lance!!" Hunk ran over to Lance and started patting his back. The rest of the team ran over and and knelt down. What the heck was happening? Why didn't Lance know where he was?

What was going on?


	2. Figuring it out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has de-aged by a year and he's now 16. The entire team can't figure out what has caused the de-aging, but they don't think its that serious of a problem since he only de-aged a year. Oh boy were they wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOO a new chapter!!!!! I did not expect this many people to like this!! I like this one a lot better than the first fan fic I have so I'm happy so many people enjoyed this!! I came to a dilemma when thinking of the story since I don't want this to get boring, but I hope I nail it and keep it interesting!! If you have any ideas for this story I would love to hear them!! If you find any mistakes be sure to tell me!! Thank you so much and I hope you enjoy!!!!

Lance and the rest of the team were seated on the couch in the common room. Lance was seated in the middle, with everyone kind of squished around him. Hunk was next to him on his right, and Keith was next to Hunk. Shiro was on his left, and Pidge was next to Shiro. No one knew exactly what was going on, just that Lance didn't remember anything.

"So Lance, what's the last thing you remember?" Shiro questioned and crossed his arms.

"I.. I remember being in the Garrison. And I remember meeting Pidge a couple days ago or something. He.. I mean she, was supposed to be working with me and Hunk." Lance answered truthfully and looked down at his hands. He was twiddling with his fingers, and obviously uncomfortable.

"That was about a year ago.." Hunk explained and sighed.

"Wait, hold on. A year? You've been in space for almost an entire year?" Lance asked and sat forward a bit.

"You mean we, and yes." Keith answered and scowled a bit. He was annoyed that Lance couldn't remember anything. He had come to like the blue paladin recently. Maybe even more than just a friend. Although he would never admit it.

"Whats going on?!?!? Why can't I remember almost an entire year of my life!?!" Lance jumped up from his seat and turned to look at the rest of the paladins. He flung his hands up and then crossed them, tapping his foot.

"We don't know..." Shiro admitted and looked down.

"Why are we even in space!! I'm only 16!!!" Lance started pacing again and looked like he was about to cry.

"Wait, 16? But you turned 17 before we left space." Hunk was beyond confused.

"What no, my birthday is in a couple months." Lance explained and stopped to look at Hunk.

"So if your 16, and your birthday was a couple months ago, and you don't remember anything after when I met you, which was a year ago, then that means..." Pidge mumbled to herself as she did the math in her head.

"So that means you de-aged somehow." Keith stated and looked worried.

"Hey you stole my thunder!"

"So Lance was somehow de-aged?"

"How the heck did I de-age!?"

"Everyone calm down!!!" Shiro shouted in his commanding voice, interrupting everyone's thoughts. "We have to calm down and think, okay?"

"Okay.." Lance took his seat back on the couch and pouted.

"Okay, so basically, Lance has somehow de-aged by a year. He is now 16, and has no memory of anything that happened after one year ago." Shiro calmly explained.

"That isn't so bad. I mean it's only a year. We can just teach him everything he needs to know again." Keith chimed in. He wasn't exactly happy about this, but he was also kind of excited. He could become friends with Lance all over again. And this time he could do a better job with it. He would have a chance to fix his past mistakes. He wouldn't ruin their friendship this time.

"We should still look for a way to reverse him." Hunk explained and stood up. "But for now, I can show you around buddy."

"Okay I guess." Lance stood up and started walking with him, leaving everyone else behind.

"I'm going to go tell the princess about this. If you could Pidge, maybe try and find out why this is happening. Keith, you should go help Hunk with explaining everything to him." Shiro started heading off in the direction of the control room as Pidge nodded and left to go and try to find out what was happening.

Keith decided to go help Hunk, so he got up and went looking for Hunk and Lance. He thought that maybe they went to the hangers, so that's where Keith went. Keith thought about what he should say to Lance. He had ruined their friendship from the start. Lance tried to be nice, but Keith always brushed him off. He didn't want to get too close to anyone once this whole ordeal first started. But by doing this, he ruined their chances. Lance probably thought he hated him. But that wasn't the case anymore. Sure Lance still remembered him from the Garrison, but he could now try to be nice and get close to him.

Keith heard Hunk and Lance talking from the Hangers, and walked in. They were in the black lions hanger, probably talking about this whole thing.

"So this is the black lion. He forms the head." Hunk explained and Lance shook his head.

"Cool!! So me and you are legs, Pidge and Keith are the arms, and Takashi Shirogane is the head." Lance repeated as he tried to process everything.

"You can just call him Shiro you know." Keith said as he walked up to stand next to Lance. They both turned their heads to stare at him.

"Oh, okay." Lance looked a little confused but went with it.

"Hi, I'm Keith Kogane. Which you already know." Keith mentally cursed himself for that one.

"Heyo, Lance McClain at your service." Lance stuck out his hand for Keith to shake. "I saw you around the Garrison before you dropped out."

"I see." Keith shook his hand, unsure of what else to say.

"Well I hope we can be friends." Lance smiled.

"Ya..." Keith's face started heating up and he nervously smiled back.

"Well now that that's over, wanna go get something to eat? I would say that you should fly blue, but this is quite a discovery. Don't want to overwhelm you or anything." Hunk smiled and started heading out of the hanger.

Hunk, Lance, and Keith all headed off to kitchen. They walked through the hallways, taking every twist and turn needed to get there. Lance looked bewildered. He was "oohing" and "awing" Every time they came across a different room. It was understandable. That was everyone's first reaction when they first arrived. They had finally made it to the kitchen, finding Coran and Shiro already there.

"Hey Shiro." Keith walked up to him. "Did you explain everything to the princess?"

"Yes, she's been informed. But she's not feeling too well so she won't be joining us today." Shiro explained.

"But don't worry!! She should be feeling better soon!!" Coran happily cheered.

"Okay, that's good to hear at least." Keith walked over to get some food goo with Hunk and Lance. Hunk was explaining the machine to Lance as the food goo poured out onto the plate. Shiro sat down at the table and Coran walked off somewhere. Keith sat down next to Shiro and Lance sat down next to him. Hunk of course sat on the other side of Lance.

"So Lance, How are you doing so far?" Shiro questioned an looked over at Lance.

"It's been okay, I guess." Lance stopped eating for a second and looked kind of sad.

"Whats wrong?" Keith asked. Shiro and Hunk looked at him with surprise. They hadn't expected Keith to notice something they didn't.

"Just thinking about my family and how they're doing. According to you guys, we left without any notice. I hope my little siblings are okay.." Lance put his head on his hand and stared at his food goo. This wasn't the Lance they were used to seeing. Sure, they knew he got homesick a lot. But when they ask about it he usually changes the subject. So no one really knows about his family. Shiro looked a little shocked, since Lance pretty much never talks about his family with anyone. Hunk looked like he understood but he was confused as well. Which was unusual since he knew Lance the longest. Did Hunk not know about Lance's family as well?

"I'm sure they're fine. They probably miss you a lot. And everyone else in our family probably does too." Hunk gave him a reassuring smile and a pat on the back.

"Ya, sure they do." Lance pushed his food goo away from himself and stood up. "Well its been a long day. I don't know what time it is, but I've been yawning non stop for a while so I'm gonna head off to bed."

"I can show you the way." Keith answered almost immediately as he stood up and walked over to Lance. He was a little confused on what had just happened. Everyone was. Lance was usually so closed off about his family. And just then, he sounded so sarcastic. Keith wanted to figure out why.

Lance and Keith headed off to Lance's bedroom. Keith leading the way of course. Lance stayed quiet the entire way. Unusual for him. Keith would've said something but he didn't know what to say. So they just walked in silence. When they had finally reached his room, Keith explained the hand scanners. He told him that his room was right down the hall so if he needed anything he could come get him. Keith had to admit, he was happy with how this was turning out so far.

"Thanks for explaining everything."

"No problem. See you tomorrow." Keith waved Lance goodbye as Lance shut the door to his room.

Keith did a a little fist pump in the air. Except for that little moment back in the kitchen, that day had turned out great!! He hoped that Lance and him would become much better friends than they were before. Keith wanted to spend more time with him. He honestly found the blue paladin really entertaining. He was funny, and he always lit up a room when he walked in. Keith would never actually say so, but he enjoyed when Lance challenged him as well. Keith loved the way Lance smiled, and his cocky attitude. The way he looked when he was sad was heartbreaking, but it was still beautiful.

Wait what was he saying!?!?!

Either way, Keith was happy with how things had turned out. He walked into his room and got ready for bed. He would get up early to train tomorrow so he decided to get a good nights sleep tonight. Keith got in bed and closed his eyes. Tomorrow he would get to see Lance again, and everything would turn out fine.

Boy was he wrong.

\------

Lance woke up the next morning confused. He sat and bed and looked around. Where was he? What was this place? Maybe the Garrison had a new change of decor? I mean he just joined so he didn't know what they did there. Lance got up out of bed and looked around the room. Maybe this was his new room. But wasn't Hunk supposed to be rooming with him? Lance didn't really know how thing worked at the Garrison. He had just joined a couple days ago. Either way, he was just happy that he wasn't in his house. Even if he didn't know where he was.

Lance put his hand on the door scanner and walked out into the hallway. The hallways seemed to twist and turn for miles. Maybe the Garrison had like a decoration shape shifting feature? Lance was unsure of what the heck was happening, but he thought it might be something that the Garrison had implemented. So he just wandered around the hallways. Lance wandered around for what seemed like hours but was probably only like 30 minutes. He walked past rooms and turns and twists but just kept walking forward. He felt like he was being drawn to something.

The feeling finally got stronger as he passed a room. Questioning it, Lance walked up to the door. It opened automatically, revealing a small hallway that opened up to another huge room. Lance walked into the big room and looked up. There was a huge, robot lion? Sitting in the middle of the room. It was mostly blue and grey, but had some other colors as well. It was surrounded by a big blue circle like thing. A barrier, maybe? He didn't know.

Lance felt very drawn to it for some reason. What the heck was it anyway? Why the heck would the Garrison have a huge robotic cat?? Lance got closer to the cat and looked at it with confusion. He put his hand on the blue circle questioningly. It suddenly dropped and Lance jumped back in surprise. The robot bent down and opened up his mouth. Was Lance supposed to enter? He felt like he should.

Lance cautiously walked into the Lion's mouth. If he were a normal person, he probably wouldn't have entered the huge robotic lion's mouth that could possibly be some kind of creature that wanted to eat him. But he wasn't a normal person. So in he went.

He walked into the Lion and into some kind of cockpit. It was dark, but as soon as he entered the entire room lit up with blue light. Lance hesitantly inched towards the seat that was in the middle of the, cockpit? It looked like a some kind of cockpit. Lance sat down in the chair and looked around. He put his hands on the thrusters and tightened his grip. He felt safe in the seat for some reason. Like he was supposed to be there.

There was a small presence in the back of his mind. It kind of felt like a voice. Like it was telling him something but it was struggling to get the words out. Lance pushed the thrusters and the Lion seemed to move.

"Woah.." Lance subconsciously said as he started to move the lion around. It was like it was made for him. There was a big door in the room that suddenly opened. It was big enough for the lion. Lance thought maybe it was an exit. He jerked the thrusters forward and the lion sped off.

"WOAAAAAAH!!!!!!" Lance shouted as the lion sped off into space.

wait.

space!?!?

Lance looked out of what he thought was the eyes in the lion at the stars around them. The lion seemed to be in control here, so he just sat back at watched.

"This, is amazing." Lance said to mostly himself but also whatever the heck was taking him around the galaxy.

\------

Keith woke up the next morning early to train. He went to the training room and did his usual. He was getting better. His reflex's were improving as well as his strength. Shiro walked in about an hour after Keith had entered the training room.

"Hey Keith, mind if I join you?" Shiro asked as he walked up to Keith.

"Sure." Keith simply answered. He was about to start the training sequence when Coran came onto the loud speakers.

"Hello paladins of Voltron!! Well everyone except Lance apparently. The Blue lion has left its hanger!! I would say he's just training, but since he doesn't remember anything, I don't know about leaving him alone out there. Also, Allura is still sick so she won't be joining you today. Good day my paladins!" Coran cheered happily in his weird accent.

Keith looked at Shiro and Shiro looked at Keith. Without even having to explain, they both ran towards the blue lion's hanger. They finally got there and it was empty.

"Do you think Lance just took blue out for a spin?" Keith asked as he crossed his arms.

"Maybe... I mean if I woke up and was told that I had my own robotic lion I would want to get in and fly around as soon as possible." Shiro admitted.

"True. But he still shouldn't be out there alone. Lets contact him and see whats up." Keith explained as he put on his helmet so he could speak through the COMM's. He had it with him since he was training.

"Lance, what are you doing out with blue?" Keith watched Shiro put on his helmet too.

"Lance its dangerous to go out on your own." Shiro stated.

"Who are you!?!? Where am I!?!?" Lance came through the static of the COMM's panicked. Didn't we explain this yesterday? He should know where he is...

"We explained this to you yesterday Lance. We're in space fighting a war and right now your in the Blue Lion." Keith said blatantly. What was going on? Didn't he know this already!!

"What!?!? What do you mean!?! Where am I!?!" Lance screamed so loud Keith flinched.

"Lance, bring blue back into the hanger okay?" Shiro stated.

Lance didn't reply, but the blue lion suddenly entered the hanger again. It opened it's mouth and out came a very wobbly and confused looking Lance. He stumbled out of the mouth and walked over to them. He looked very timid and shy as he walked over. His shoulders were hunched and he looked lost. Something Keith had seen in many of the kids at his foster home.

"Where am I? What is this place? And why is there a giant robot lion that can fly and move on its own?" Lance's confusion quickly turned into anger. "Is this still the garrison? I didn't know they had robot lions here.."

"No this is not the Garrison Lance. This is the castle. We explained this to you yesterday."

"This is my first time ever meeting either of you!" Lance threw up his hands and took a step forward in Keith's direction. He was still keeping his distance, but he was.. shorter. He was even shorter than yesterday. Not by a lot but it was noticeable. Keith didn't know what do. He was just as confused as Lance appeared to be. And Shiro wasn't doing much better.

They were all suddenly interrupted by the sound of the hanger door opening. Hunk and Pidge ran towards where they were all standing. Pidge looked annoyed, and Hunk looked worried.

"What's going on? Lance I told you not to try and fly blue without me." Hunk walked up to Lance and put his hands on his shoulders. "Wait.. Are you even shorter?"

"Hunk!!!!! I have no idea what your talking about!! This is how tall I've been for a couple months! And do you know where we are?" Lance smiled a bit but it quickly died.

"Lance we explained this yesterday!! Your in the castle!!" Pidge tiredly shouted from behind Keith.

"WHAT CASTLE!?!?!" Lance broke free of Hunk's grasp and shouted back.

Pidge looked a little startled from the sudden outburst. Everyone just stared at Lance. They were all in shock. Didn't they explain this yesterday?? What was going on!?!

"Lance, how old are you...." Hunk asked, realization suddenly hitting him.

"I'm 15. We celebrated my birthday together. Do you not remember? I mean we met last year so I guess I would understand if you forgot." Lance had turned back to see Hunk. The Garrison was kind of like a high school and college combined. Lance had met Hunk in his last year of Middle school.

Hunk looked at the other paladins. Everyone suddenly realized what was going on. Lance had de-aged by another year for some reason. But why? Why was he de-aging? What was going on?! Why was Lance de-aging at all! Déjà vu was written on everyone but Lance's face, he just looked scared and confused. 

"Not again...." Pidge slapped her face with her hand and sighed.

Everyone but Lance did the same.


	3. something's wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is now 15 and the paladins don't know what to do. They are still trying to figure out what caused the age reduction while dealing with a not so enthusiastic Lance. The entire team figures out that something is wrong with Lance, but don't know what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOO ANOTHER CHAPTER!!!! I'm really excited to finally be putting this out!! I hope you enjoy!!
> 
> If I made any mistakes feel free to tell me in the comments!! Also if you have any suggestions go ahead and suggest them!!! I hope you enjoy!!!

Once again, all of the paladins were sitting in the meeting room on the couch. They were all in the same seats they were in yesterday, and all the attention was on Lance.

"So, Lance. You are 15, correct?" Shiro was always the first to speak in these situations.

"Yup." Lance had his head down. His shoulders were hunched and he looked very nervous. He sat straight up when Shiro asked the question.

"Soooooo, If Lance was 16 yesterday, and now Lance is 15, does that mean he's going to keep de-aging?" Pidge asked as she pushed her glasses up her nose.

"We're not really.. sure.." Shiro looked down at his hands and everyone but Lance repeated the action.

"So you're telling me, I'm supposed to be 17 and fighting in an intergalactic war against big purple aliens in space." Lance recollected his thought and repeated what he knew.

"That's about it." Hunk answered and gave him a small smile.

"But the last thing I remember is joining the Garrison. I'm not even fit to be a pilot, how am I defending the universe?" Lance said mostly to himself.

"Hey hey, you're a great pilot Lance. And we don't really know what's happening either.." Shiro reassured Lance and placed a hand on his knee. Lance flinched at the physical contact and seemed to stiffen. Shiro noticed and quickly moved his hand away.

"Sorry.."

"No no, its okay. I'm just not used to people touching me." Lance smiled shyly and waved him off, leaving the rest of the paladins with a confused look on their faces. No one said anything.

"Well then, How about yours truly shows you around the castle today!" Pidge jumped up from her feet as she put her hands on her hips. "I want to get a good look at you also. I'm still trying to figure out this age regression thing." 

"Okay." Lance stood up quietly and followed Pidge out of the room.

\------

As Lance and Pidge disappeared through the door, Keith turned to face Hunk.

"Now that was weird. He seems so much more different than yesterday. More timid, less talkative like usual." Keith crossed his arms and he thought about their encounter.

"Actually, he's always been like that. Shy, I mean. Well at least until around the second year of being at the Garrison." Hunk answered like it was common sense.

"What??" Shiro almost gasped.

"Yup. When I first met him, he was actually really quiet. We probably wouldn't have met if Lance wasn't so selfless." Hunk recalled the memory. "In our last year of middle school, I was being bullied by some high school jerks at the park and Lance came raging in. He didn't actually win the fight, he actually got beat up pretty bad. But non the less, the bullies left and I was left with an injured Lance. All's he said to me was, 'I've been through worse'. We found out we went to the same school and became best friends."

Keith was left speechless. Lance seemed like the type to stand up to bullies. He was confident and brave, and he was always up for a good fight. The fact that that is how Hunk and Lance met didn't surprise him. What surprised him was the horrific comment that came after the battle. I mean, 'I've been through worse'? That doesn't seem like a very good thing. What did Lance mean? Keith remembered Lance had said that before he de-aged as well. Did it have something to do with why Lance was being so timid? Keith still couldn't believe Lance was ever timid!!

"Ah okay, I see." Was all Shiro said before standing up. "We should go find Pidge and go visit Allura. She's still sick, but she may know a way to fix this."

Keith got up with Hunk and they wandered out into the hallway to find Pidge. They split up, and after about 30 minutes of looking, Keith found them in one of the spare rooms in the castle. Pidge called it her, "Thinking chamber". It was where she put all of her extra projects that weren't for Voltron or finding her family. She left spare parts in there an random things she had made. Keith found Pidge working on one of her projects while Lance was sitting on his knees and silently watching.

"Hey, we need you guys to go visit Allura." Keith spoke up as he leaned against the door frame.

"Aww Okay. Let me just finish this one little bit.." Pidge stuck out her tongue as she concentrated on whatever she was making. Keith walked over to Lance while trying to step over and around all the things laying on the floor. He squatted down next to Lance and watched Pidge work. Lance didn't even spare him a glance.

"Sooo, what are you working on?" Keith tried to fill the silence after a while. He had decided to sit crossed legged since this was probably going to take a while. Keith usually wouldn't say anything, but since the one who usually would refused to even move, he decided he should.

"It's a translator. I realized that we may come across some aliens that can't speak our language, so I decided to try and make something to help with that. It can be used to translate English languages as well. Lance, say something in Spanish." Pidge shoved the translator into Lance's face, causing him to move his head back a bit in surprise.

"Uhh... me encanta el espacio?"

"I love space." The little box spoke in a robotic voice as it repeated in English what Lance had said.

"Woah.." Lance stared in awe and took the tiny box in his hands. "This is so cool. How does it work?"

"There's a button on the side that you can click and a little screen will pop up. You just have to click the language you want it to translate. I only know Earth languages though, so that's all it has right now since I'd have to learn the words from the aliens. For the languages it has, I had to like, download the entire dictionary in all the languages on there." Pidge proudly sat back and smiled.

"So can it translate things into Spanish?" Lance looked at her with eyes full of hope. Like they were begging for the answer to be yes. They probably were.

"They sure can!! Just click the button and choose Spanish. Then speak in English." Pidge pointed to the button on the side of the cube. Lance clicked it and a little blue hologram screen came up. There was a very large selection of languages on there. Maybe even all of them. Lance scrolled through the options and clicked on the Spanish option.

"My favorite color is blue." Lance happily chirped.

"mi color favorito es azúl" The machine repeated in Spanish, causing Lance to lighten up and smile his biggest smile.

"It's been so long since I heard Spanish..." Lance blinked back, happy tears? His eyes were shining and his face was turning red. Why was he crying? And wasn't his family Cuban? Why hadn't he heard Spanish in so long? As if reading Keith's thoughts, Pidge asked his question for him.

"I thought your family was Cuban?"

"Oh well, I'm Cuban on my mom's side but not my dad's side. We grew up with our mom speaking Spanish so me and my siblings all knew it fluently. But since my dad didn't know Spanish, after a while, he forbid us from using it." Lance's smiled sadly as he put his hands in his laps while still holding on to the translator. He looked lost in thought for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure and smiled. "It's okay though. It's just been a while." Lance handed the cube back to Pidge.

"Right.." Pidge took the cube with a questioning look and stared at it for a moment.

"Well, you said we had to go see whoever this Allura person is right? Lets get going!" Lance stood up and made his way to the door, leaving behind two shocked paladins.

"Ya, okay.." Keith got up slowly and walked to the door. He was still wondering what that was all about though. Lance had revealed a bit of his family yet again, leaving him even more confused on his past than before. Keith wondered why the heck his father would ban Spanish in an almost all Spanish house hold. Just because he couldn't speak it? And why did Lance change the subject like nothing happened? Keith tucked away his thoughts for later as they all started walking to Allura's room.

Keith looked over at Lance as they walked. His shoulders were hunched and he looked like he was just mindlessly following Pidge and Keith around. He was staring at the floor, face still a little red from tearing up. His feet shuffled across the floor a few steps behind Keith's. He was trying to make himself as small and unnoticeable as possible.

They finally made it to Allura's room and found Shiro, Hunk, and Coran already inside. They were talking, but they all looked over as the door opened. Shiro had a knit in his brow as well as Hunk, Coran looked about as happy as ever for some reason, and Allura had a stern look on her face with her mouth in a tight line. They all walked over to Allura's bed and joined Shiro, Hunk, and Coran. Allura was the first to talk.

"So Lance, I see you are now, er, younger than before." She smiled nervously from her bed.

"That's what I've been told." He admitted and smiled back while scratching his chin.

"I see. Let me take a closer look at you." Lance hesitated, but walked closer to Allura's bed. Allura reached her hands out and touched the side of Lance's cheeks. Since he was shorter now, it was reachable from her position. Lance winced a bit but didn't move otherwise as Allura looked at him carefully.

"It isn't magic, as far as I can see." Allura removed her hand from Lance's cheek and rested it back on the bed. "This isn't something I can fix, unfortunately."

"Then what caused this and how do we fix it!?" Pidge yelled and stepped forward a bit. Lance winced at her voice and bit his lip. Pidge, noticing this, felt a little guilty and quickly regained her composure.

"I'm not sure. Try to recall what has happened in the past few weeks or so. If anyone can figure it out, it's you, paladins." Allura smiled and turned back towards Lance. "We aren't really sure what is going on, but we assure you we will fix it, Lance."

"Thanks. That helps. You remind me of my older sister, by the way. Well one of them." Lance reached for the back of his neck and shifted his weight onto one foot.

"Is that so? Well I'm happy to hear that." Allura spoke as if she was speaking to a wounded animal. They had all noticed how tense Lance was at the moment. It was almost unbearable to watch the usually happy and excited Lance be so uncomfortable and shy.

"Well now, I'm sorry to interrupt, but Allura needs her rest!" Coran chirped and held up his pointer finger.

"Yes, of course. Thank you Princess." Shiro waved the princess goodbye and they all left the room. Coran went straight to the med bay to get some Altean medicine for Allura while the rest of the paladins headed to the kitchen for dinner.

They all shuffled into the kitchen and went to get food or sit down. Keith guided Lance to where he sat while Hunk brought out some weird alien food. It looked pretty appetizing honestly. The plate were put down in front of them and everyone dug in. Hunk sat down in the empty seat next to Pidge and started eating as well. The only one who didn't start eating was Lance.

"What are you waiting for?" Keith asked with a mouth full of food.

"Umm... Permission?" Lance asked, not looking at Keith. Just down at his food. Keith stared at him a little wide eyed. Why did Lance need permission to eat? He had never done this before.

"Oh sorry about that Lance. I forgot. You can start eating now." Hunk answered and Keith watched in amazement as Lance slowly started eating his food. He looked so vulnerable. Like some kind of baby animal. This wasn't his usual cocky self. This was a completely different Lance. It was like he was a different person. How can someone change that much in only 2 years? And this was normal? According to what Hunk had just said, asking for permission to eat and looking like some kind of lost child was a usual.

Lance stayed quiet through dinner. Not saying a word. When he was finished, he got up and asked Hunk where to put his dish. Lance sat back down at the table next to Keith and just sat there. Everyone else finished their meals soon after and put their plates away.

"Okay, so, since we don't really know what's happening, and Lance will probably de-age again tonight, we are having a sleep over!" Shiro tried to look happy but you could see his distress. He was probably worried and very confused, just like the rest of them.

No one bothered to argue as they all got up and headed to the meeting room. Hunk went off to collect blankets and pillows for everyone while the rest of them got comfy. Hunk came back with piles of pillows and blankets and everyone settled down. Shiro slept on the couch, not even bothering to change. Hunk had changed into his yellow pajamas and slept on the floor next the Lance. Pidge didn't change either and just settled ]onto the other side of the couch. Keith took of his jacket and belt while making a snarky remark about having to sleep next to Lance. Lance, didn't answer. Unusual. Very, unusual. He had taken off his Jacket as well, and was in between Hunk and Keith.

Everyone drifted off to sleep in a peaceful silence, awaiting the morning and what it had to hold.

\------

Lance woke up with a heavy feeling in his chest. He groggily opened his eyes and looked around as his eyes started to get in focus. Hold on a moment. Where was he??? Last time He checked his house had tan ceilings and the remnants of torn up paper stars that were once taped there. They weren't plain and white and so high you could probably stack 3 elephants on top of each other in that one room! Lance tried to move, but felt his body was restrained for some reason. Lance looked down to see a leg sprawled across his chest.

Wait.

A LEG!?!?!?

Lance started breathing a bit faster as he realized he was not in his house anymore. He tried to get up again, but the big, dark skinned leg was too heavy. Lance squirmed his hands out from whoever's blankets these were and tried to push the leg off him. He panicked and hyperventilated. Lance never did well with a few things. Tight spaces, after he was locked in the closet for almost 4 hours. Being restrained, after far too many bad experiences. And also being touched, for fear of being hurt.

Lance continued to struggle against the leg as he was starting to loose focus on what he was doing. All his fears were basically coming true at that moment! And where the heck was he?? He didn't recognize any of his surroundings! And are those more people!?!?

Lance didn't even care anymore. He needed to be free of whoever was holding him down. Purposefully or not.

Lance had always been weak and frail. And this leg was really heavy. But this was just ridiculous!!

'get out get out get out get out get-'

Lance's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of something moving beside him. Lance froze. He slowly turned to see what was moving. A pale faced boy with raven hair rose from his sleep and rubbed at his eyes. He looked around 17 or 18, and he had a serious bed head. Who was this guy?

"Lance..?" The man said and looked at him curiously. Wait what?!!? How did he know his name?!?!?

Another sound from his other side broke him free of his many roaming thoughts. A man with the same colored skin as the leg that still rested on him sat up and looked in his direction. 

"Hey buddy!" His face brightened as he saw Lance. He looked familiar, but there was no time for that.

"Off off off off off off!" Lance kept pushing on the mans leg. He seemed to understand, since he moved it off of Lance's body. As soon as he did, Lance shot up from where he had been laying and ran to the nearest wall He turned back around to the people he left behind and put his back on the wall. He was still hyperventilating and panicking.

"Woah there!" The dark man shouted and stood up. The other guy looked surprised but slowly started standing up as well. There were two people behind them. The noise must have woken them, since They both sat up as well. One guy looked around his age, He was short and had light brown hair. They reached for their glasses and put them on. The other guy had a scar on his nose and black hair with a white little tuft in the front. He looked ready to fight honestly. He scared Lance most.

"what the.." The smaller person spoke and looked at Lance who had his back pressed up against the wall like he was still trying to go further back.

"Lance!" The buff dude immediately got up and slowly started approaching Lance. How the hell did these people know who Lance was!?! Who even were they?!?

"S- Stay back!!!!" Lance shouted as the man approached. The man stopped and put his hands out in a way you would to an injured animal to show try and show it you weren't going to hurt it.

"Hey, hey its okay. We aren't going to hurt you." He started inching forward again.

"St- st- stop!!!" With no where left to go, Lance fell to the ground and put his hands up protectively to guard his face. He was on the verge of a panic attack.

The man seemed to notice this and finally stopped. He bent down on his knee from where he was standing and beckoned the dark skinned man to come closer. The guy with black hair had started tip toeing closer as well, but stopped around halfway between the other two. The guy in the back had stood up but stayed where he was.

"Hey buddy, calm down okay? We aren't going to hurt you." The dark skin man had a soft voice. He was less intimidating.

"Where, where am I?? Wh- who are you?!?" Lance didn't move from his defensive position but decided to try and figure out what was happening. He heard the black haired man ask the dark skinned one why he didn't recognize him. The reply was something along the lines of, this must have been before we met.

Lance didn't know what he was talking about and didn't care. He started tearing up and he was shaking. Who were these people and what did they want??

"Lance, we need you to calm down okay? Breath with me, okay? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10." The black haired boy had started to inch closer to Lance. He had a soothing voice. Lance liked it. It was calming. He tried to focus on the numbers and calm down. He finally stopped hyperventilating but he was still shaking and sweating. His eyes glistened from unshed tears.

"Good! That was good Lance. Now, we aren't going to hurt you, okay? We're going to explain everything to you once you calm down. We're your friends. Don't worry." The man was now the closest to Lance. Almost in arms reach.

"O- Okay..." Lance tried to compose himself as he watched the others inch forward. 

Lance had finally seemed to calm down. He slumped against the wall. He frantically wiped his eyes and hugged himself to try and look as small as possible. All of the other people had gathered around him and were waiting for him to calm down. The raven haired boy was next to him and the closest. Lance liked him so far. He seemed nice. The dark skinned guy was on his other side, and the two other people were squatting in front of him. The one with the scar started to speak.

"Alright. So this is what's happening.."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this wasn't the best chapter!!! I was pretty tired while writing this!!
> 
> Either way, I hope you enjoyed!! Nice comments are always appreciated!! If you noticed any mistakes feel free to tell me!! Also, I'm not Spanish and I don't take Spanish so sorry if I got it wrong!!! I'm literally using google translate and websites for this so bear with me!!!!
> 
> Thanks for reading so far!!!


	4. Things are not what they seem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team finally figures out what is going on with the age reduction. Unfortunately, not all of their problems are solved from figuring this out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't posted in so long!!!!!!!! I've had so much work to do and I just haven't had the time!!!! Thank you so much for anyone who has stuck with me and if anyone new is reading I hope you enjoy!!!!!
> 
> also there is some mentions of bullying and abuse at the end so read with caution!!!!!!

Lance was still sitting on the floor against the wall in the room he woke up in. The man named Shiro had explained what was going on, but Lance was honestly finding it hard to believe. Space robot cats, evil aliens, nice aliens, and most importantly this weird age reducing crap? It was almost as confusing as his sexuality.

"So now that you're filled in, do you have any questions? Concerns?" Shiro asked with a gentle smile.

"No.. I'm uh, i'm good." Lance answered with a nervous tone.

"Great! Well we should probably show you around. Again. So which one of us do you want the tour from this time?" Shiro chuckled a bit since what he was saying was so bizarre.

"Um.. I don't really know.."

"That's okay. No pressure. How about Keith takes you on the tour? Is that alright?" Shiro asked as Hunk, Pidge, and even Keith silently agreed. They had all seen how Keith had calmed Lance down.

"Ya.. I suppose..." Lance quickly got up from where he was still pressed against the wall. The rest of them seemed to stand up as well.

"I'm going to go try to figure out whats happening. Good luck with the tour." Pidge was already running out of the room.

"I'm going to get started on breakfast! Talk to you later buddy!" Hunk gave Lance his biggest smile as he walked down the hall.

"I'll tell the princess about this. Don't be too long." Shiro smiled as he patted Keith on the shoulder and walked out as well.

"Lets uh, get going so we can get to breakfast faster. I'm starving." Keith admitted as he started walking towards the door.

Lance didn't even say a word as he quietly followed him out of the room.

\------

It was awkward for Keith to be the one leading the conversation. Usually someone else would be the one in charge. When Keith would talk to Lance, Lance was always the one with the conversation starters. Talking about training or challenging him to races. Even though Keith had been standoffish, Lance would still try to talk to him. It was one of Keith's favorite things about Lance. But now, he was the one that had to do the talking, and it was unusual for him. He tried to sound as normal as possible.

"So this is the Bridge. It's where we debrief and stuff..." Keith was not good at this. Why did he agree to take Lance on the tour again?

"Cool.." Lance looked around in awe as he watched stars and galaxies slowly pass bye from the clear glass windows that made up the walls.

"So that's about it. Let's go get ourselves some breakfast." Keith watched as Lance's eyes scanned the room one last time before following Keith out the door. Seeing Lance be so in awe of something that they had been seeing for almost a year was kind of astonishing. Thinking back to it, they had all been so intrigued by space and the castle-ship when they had first got there. Now, it was like seeing space, planets, and stars was an everyday occurrence. It didn't surprise them anymore. So seeing Lance looking so amazed by something they had all taken for granted after a while was refreshing.

As Keith and Lance made their way to the kitchen, Keith had noticed something. Lance was acting like some of the kids in his foster home. Now, Keith had already kind of established this. But he was acting even more like it now. He barely spoke, and when he did they were either short sentences or he stuttered. Anytime someone else moved he would watch their exact movements. When someone moved towards him, he would flinch. And yet, sometimes he looked so distant. He was alert to the world around him and yet so lost in it as well.

Keith tried to think about how someone could change so much in the duration of three years. What had happened to make him act this way? The Lance he knew was always happy and cheerful, with an ego no one else could outshine. He was the goofball and lessened everyone's tension. But now, he seemed so, not Lance. Could three years really change someone this much?

Keith heard a sharp intake of breath from behind him. He looked back to see Lance standing there with his eyes wide.

wait.

he had said that out loud.

"What do you mean change someone..? am I really that different in the future...? Am I a bad person in the future?" Lance looked down at his feet and took one step backwards.

"No no, you're not a bad person in the future! I mean like, you're so different now! You're so quiet and shy but you're usually so different!" Keith tried to explain as he took a step forward towards Lance.

"So I'm worse now?" Lance took another step back.

"NO!!!! No, no I just- ughh, I don't mean it that way, okay? You're not any worse or any better now or in the future. Just different." Keith mentally slapped himself for his wording.

"How do I act as a 17 year old....?" Lance questioned as he finally stopped moving backwards and was just standing there.

"funny, Sarcastic, Happy, confident, goofy." Keith listed things off one by one. He looked over at Lance to see his his reaction. He was expecting a little shock, or maybe happiness because whatever was going on now gets better. But what he was not expecting was a look of relief.

"Ah, okay. At least I know I'm good at acting." Lance started walking down the hallway again, leaving a confused and shocked Keith to follow after him.

\------

Keith and Lance entered the dining room to find everyone except Allura and Coran seated at the table. Hunk was digging into what looked like space waffles as Pidge typed away on her computer. Shiro was slowly sipping some alien coffee.

"Hey guys." Keith announced his presence as he walked over to the table and sat down one chair away from Shiro, gesturing Lance to sit in the middle of the two. Lance followed after him and sat in the seat between them. Shiro gave them both a gentle smile and Hunk replied with a wave as he slid over two plates of alien waffles for them. Everyone just sat and ate there in silence except the tapping at Pidge's keyboard until she suddenly jumped up and shut the laptop.

"I think I've got it!!!" She yelled as she slid her laptop away and grabbed one of the alien waffles from Hunks plate and shoved it into her mouth.

"Really? Whats your theory?" Shiro put down his coffee and watched Pidge scarf down the rest of her waffle before speaking.

"Well, You see, the reason I couldn't figure it out was because I thought maybe this de-aging thing was part of a Galran spell that had a delayed effect. Even though Allura said it wasn't magic it could have been something else Galran. So that's what I was looking for. I was watching video and audio feeds from previous battles to see if I could find anything. But it turns out it wasn't Galran at all!!" Pidge waved her finger in the air as she smiled with a cocky grin.

"Well, what was it?" Keith deadpanned while looking at her with an unamused face.

"It was the Time Eater!!!!!" Pidge shouted.

"The woozit whatzit?" Hunk asked, confused.

"The Time Eater!! It was the creature the ruler of that planet we went to a few days ago warned us about!!! He said it could reduce one's age. Its so obvious I don't know how I forgot!" Pidge slammed her hands down on the table, causing Lance to flinch and almost slide under the table.

"Wait, he said that? I completely forgot! We were so busy worrying about getting back to the castle alive I forgot that guy had said anything at all!" Keith threw his hands up in the air at his complete stupidity. The ruler literally told them the creature's name and what it did and they forgot. They could have already had the cure by now if they all weren't such complete and utter idiots!!

"But didn't that guy also say one of his people died from that creature? IS LANCE GONNA DIE?!?!?" Hunk had completely forgotten about his space waffles as he was suddenly tearing up.

"Guys! guys! calm down! Lance is not going to die. We will find a cure. The ruler said that one of his people lived did he not? So there's still a chance." Shiro had stood up and was waving his hands around trying to get everyone to calm down.

"Well the guy didn't actually say the person lived he just said there were two people and one died. Who knows what happened to the other." Pidge adjusted her glasses on her nose.

"SO SOMETHING ELSE IS GONNA HAPPEN TO LANCE!?!??!?!?!" Hunk had jumped out of his seat and looked like his puppy just got ran over.

Shiro glared at Pidge but she just shrugged and mouthed, 'its the truth'.

"Listen, we don't know what's gonna happen, but at least we know what caused the age reduction. Now we can try to figure out a cure. I am going to go tell the princess this, and then we can continue on with our day, okay?" Shiro reassured them as he walked out the door.

Sighing, Keith looked down to where Lance was now seated on the floor with his legs drawn up into his chest, looking as though he was scared for his life. Keith was just trying to figure out if it was because of the age reduction problem, or something else.

\------

Lance and the rest of the group were all seated in the common room as they awaited for Shiro to get back to them with what the princess's verdict. Hunk was playing with a little trinket while looking sad, Pidge was once again typing away on her computer, and Keith was seated right next to Lance, just looking at the floor with a worried expression.

Lance really wasn't sure how extreme this really was. He heard most of what was going on, but his brain had kind of shut down sometime around the middle of the conversation, since his body was trying to figure out if this was either a fight or flight battle or just a friendly argument. Too many wrong guesses had led him to being hurt sometimes.

As the door to the room suddenly opened, Lance jumped a little and looked up to see Shiro standing there with a worried expression. All eyes were on him as he walked down to the couch and started explaining.

"Okay, so it turns out Allura is still very sick and won't be able to wormhole us back to that planet." Shiro sighed and looked at the ground.

"Then what are we supposed to do?!?" Pidge shouted a bit.

"Let me finish. I never said we couldn't go back to the planet, just that we can't wormhole there. It should only take us a few days to get there since we didn't wormhole when we left the planet. We just flew away. So it'll take us about 3 days to get back." Shiro finished.

"But that's still a long time..." Keith whispered to no one but himself even though everyone still heard him.

"It is a long time, but the only thing that will happen is Lance's age being reduced more. It's only 3 days so it's not like he'll revert back into a fetus or something by the time we get there. It's inconvenient, yes, but we need to get back to that planet no matter what and if 3 days is what it takes then 3 days is what it takes."

Everyone but Lance's expression's saddened. Lance was still confused. He knew this was a big deal based on everyone's reactions but it was still a lot for a 14 year old to handle. Especially when the whole space thing is new.

Lance flinched for what seemed like the 100th time that day as the door to the room once again opened, and revealed a man with bright orange hair and a huge mustache.

"Good day paladins! I know that we are all stressed out from this newest discovery, but Allura wants you all to keep training. Zarkon won't stop attacking just because we have a minor setback. Since Lance is obviously not ready to do any fighting, we're going to be doing a mind melding exercise!" The man happily chirped as he clapped his hands together.

"Sounds good Coran, we'll be there in a minute." Shiro stood up and so did everyone else. Lance just got up because everyone else was getting up but he really didn't know what was happening. The man named Coran walked away and everyone else followed. Lance just tried to act normal as he was lead into a huge empty room and handed a weird looking headband. They all sat down in a circle sitting criss cross applesauce and put the headband on. Lance did the same.

"Okay paladins, Allura insists she is feeling well enough to sit in on the lesson today so we will be watching from the training observation deck like usual. Now back to the lesson, today the lesson is all about opening up about yourself. We will be working on trust today. Please think of something from the past that makes you unsure or upset." Coran chimed through the intercoms.

'Think of something that makes me upset huh.... well that's not that hard to do.' Lance thought to himself as he sat there in his slightly baggy t-shirt and rolled up jeans. The armor they used was apparently too big to fit him so they all opted out of wearing it.

Lance opened his eyes for a moment to peek at what everyone else was imagining. Shiro, was picturing some sort of, cell? Everything was purple and there were prison bars made of what looked like plasma on the screen. Pidge was thinking of what looked like a classroom full of kids laughing at her. Hunk was thinking of a playground and him being pushed around by some older kids. Bullies, probably. Keith was imagining him alone in a small little shack looking thing. Just sitting there, alone.

Lance's face saddened as he saw what everyone was thinking of. These were all things that made them upset. Things that they don't want to live through again. It's surprising how much trust the team in front of him already has. Lance sighed as he realized he really had no place with these people. He couldn't trust them as much as they trust each other. There was no way his older self felt any different. he knew himself and he knew that even if in the future he's 'happy', or 'funny', it's really just all an act. lance had way too many scars to be as happy and confident as these people say he is.

"Lance, you are still not thinking of anything." Lance heard a female voice through the intercom.

"sorry..." Lance shrunk into himself for a moment before regaining his composure.

'Okay, I just have to think of something that makes me upset but not that upset. They can't find out. If future self hasn't told them yet then I should keep it that way. What's upsetting but not that upsetting? Bullies?' Lance thought to himself as he pictured himself sitting in a class surrounded by many other kids.

_"Why do you always have so many injuries?" One kid would say as they take his arm in their hand and poke at one of his bruises._

_"He-hey that hurts! And it's none of your business!" 11 year old Lance pulled his arm back and rubbed at it._

_"What? Does your family hurt you? do they punish you for being such a queer? They probably know their son is such a fag and decide to punish him for it! How dare our little Lance grow up to be such a loser! Liking Boys and girls is disgusting!" Another kid would say._

Stop stop stop stop stop stop-

the scenery changed.

_"Lance, how was school today" His father would ask as soon as he got home_

_"it was good papa.. I'll be going to my room now." Lance tried to brush past him._

_"Lance."_

_"Yes papa?"_

_"did you get into any trouble at school today?"_

_"......"_

_"Lance."_

_"No papa, I didn't."_

_"Then why did your teacher call saying you sent another kid to the nurse today?"_

_"He... He started it. He was pushing me around. I just pushed back..."_

_"Lance."_

_"....Yes...."_

_"What do bad boys get?"_

_"......"_

_"LANCE!"_

_"bad boys get punished! They- they get punished for being bad!!" Lance held up his hands defensively as his father stepped forward._

_"were you a bad boy Lance?" His father raised his tone._

_"No- no I-"_

_"WERE YOU A BAD BOY LANCE?!"_

_"YES, YES I was a bad boy! But please don't please I- I didn't- I" Another step forward._

_"Go to the basement Lance."_

_"I swear- I didn't mean to, Please-" Lance was interrupted by his father grabbing his arm and dragging him towards the basement door._

_"PLEASE- PLEASE I DIDN'T MEAN TO" Lance tried to fight back._

_Lance's cries only got louder as they neared the basement door. The door that sealed his fate. The door that trapped him for hours on end. The door were Lance's father let out his anger from a day at work. That door, was getting closer. Closer. Closer. Closer. Even closer. He was heading for the door. The door. The door. He doesn't want to go into the door. Not the door, please not the door-_

"LANCE!!!!!!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it!!!! It's not the longest chapter but it's something. I don't know when I'll post the next chapter but I hope it'll be soon :D
> 
> In the next chapter the team gets some reveals about Lance's past!!!
> 
> cya next time!!!!!!!


	5. Learning about the past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has a panic attack and learns that all of his friends witnessed what he had just remembered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm back with a new chapter :D This one is REALLY short though. I wanted to make it longer but I just didn't have the time. I wouldn't have even posted this but I wanted to get something out at least. I hope you all enjoy!!

"-ance!"

"lance!!"

"LANCE!!!!!"

Bright white light flooded his vision as Lance suddenly started to wake up. Five different figures danced around his view through blurry eyes. Blurry eyes? Was he crying? He could barely breath. His lungs felt like they were filling with fluid. Water sounds sloshed around his ears and mixed with the various voices around him. He couldn't here what anyone was saying. He couldn't pin point the different sounds and variations of speech. All's he heard was white noise and muffled tones.

"-nc"

"-gi- -hi- -som- -roo-"

"Ca- dow-"

"-ance-"

"ple-"

One of the figures moved in front of him. There were hands on him. Hands? Why were there hands? Hands? Who's hands were they? Move move move move-

"Lance!!" Someone had finally caught his attention. Black hair and a red jacket. Keith? Was that his name?

"Lance, I need you to breath with me okay? breath. count to four okay? Can you hear me?"

Lance slightly nodded as an answer and slowly started counting to four in his mind. Breathing. In and out. In and out. His vision started to clear and he could now see Keith more clearly and also the four other people standing behind him.

"Good. When you're calmed down some more I need you to name 5 things you can see, Okay?" Worry laced his voice, but also something else Lance couldn't put a name to.

"I- I can see.. I can see your face, the walls, the- the other people, your eyes, and your hair."

"Amazing. You're doing great. Name 4 things you can touch."

"your skin, the ground, the wall? Hair. My hair? My hair." His voice wavered with every word.

"Good. you're doing so good Lance. 3 things you can hear."

"Your voice, my voice, the... the uh.. ummm... movement. I can hear movement." His voice cracked with the last word.

"Okay. That works. 2 things you can smell."

"You.. and... air? Freshener? Air freshener?"

"Perfect. Okay 1 thing you can taste."

"Something gross...." A few small laughs from somewhere in the room.

"I will have you know that my meals are-"

"Coran."

"..."

Keith chuckled a bit.

"That was amazing Lance. You did great, okay?" Keith removed his hands from Lance's shoulders and slowly backed up from his squatting position on the floor, opting to sit down instead.

Lance's vision had finally become clear as he looked around the room once more. He could see Keith sitting on his knees in front of him, Hunk to his left with Shiro, and Pidge to his right with the orange haired man that came in earlier. Lance removed his hands from where they were planted on his head and finally relaxed a little. Slumping against the wall, he watched as his, friends? People he was supposed to live with? Gather around him in a non crowding way.

"What... what happened?" Lance remembered sitting in a circle, and then some kids at school, and then his father..

"We were doing a mind meld exercise and you got too caught up in your memories..." Pidge said while readjusting her glasses. She looked nervous. Like she was hiding something. Looking around the room Lance noticed that all of his friends brows were turned upwards with worry. They seemed confused as well though.

"Could.. could you all see my memories...?" Lance's voice wavered and cracked as he asked the question. He didn't really want to know the answer.

Silence followed his voice as his friends looked around the room at each other for help. Deciding between what to say. Keith looked down to the ground as he explained.

"Yes... We- we could see everything.."

Lance's eyes widened as he heard the answer. Everyone saw. Everyone saw what he was trying to hide. Everyone saw what FUTURE Lance was trying to hide. If future him didn't want these people to know then this him didn't want them to know either. And he just had to go and mess everything up. He ruined what his future self had worked so hard to create. he ruined their views on him. He let them see through his facade.

"Lance, if you want to talk about it.. we can-" Shiro's sentence was cut off by Lance standing abruptly.

"Woah Lance! You'll get a dizzy spell." Hunk moved his hands out to help Lance but Lance swatted them away. Putting his hand on the wall and wobbling a bit, he finally regained balance and slowly started to step away.

"I... I'm gonna go that way, hahaha..." He laughed nervously as he walked backwards towards the door.

"Lance-" Keith quickly stood up and reached out for him. 

"Bye" Lance's voice echoed through the room as the sliding door shut behind him, leaving behind very confused paladins and one adviser.

\------

Keith watched as Lance's retreating figure exited through the door, his hand left hanging in the air. He put his arm down to his side and stared at the ground. what was that? One minute they were doing a training exercise and the next Lance was freaking out and being driven into a panic attack. They had all seen what was in his memories as the Cuban boy squirmed about and mumbled "no's" and "stop's" at his father. They watched the boy start to crawl backwards and hit the wall. They all witnessed his break down. And they were all shocked.

"Was Lance... abused..?" Pidge asked with slight hesitance.

"I.. I don't know... Based on what we just saw I would assume.... But he never said anything.." Hunk fidgeted with his fingers as small tears started gathering in his eyes.

"You did say that Lance used to come to school with injuries. Claiming they were from rough housing with his siblings." Shiro exclaimed, crossing his arms and using a hand to scratch his chin a bit in thought.

"He has been acting quite odd since he de-aged. Even I noticed and I've barely been around him lately." Coran input and everyone nodded in agreement.

"Why wouldn't he tell us...." Pidge asked a question none of them could answer at the moment.

"I'm going after him." Keith made up his mind and started fast walking towards the door.

"Keith!"

"yeah?" Keith momentarily stopped and turned to see who called him.

"Please help him.." Hunk looked at him with worry in his eyes.

Keith smiled and turned back around.

"Don't worry. I will."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so short!!!! There will be a longer chapter next time I post, I promise. I also want to tell everyone that I barely know anything about panic attacks or abuse. I lived and am still living a hard life but I've never really experienced any of this or anything like it (for the most part). Most of my knowledge for this story is coming from me reading other fan fictions so I'm sorry if this doesn't sound or feel authentic to you. I'm not the best writer and a lot of this is pretty cheesy or cliche so yeah. If you don't like it you don't have to read it. But If you guys have any suggestions or any constructive criticism I'm always happy to hear it!!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this little chapter. Feedback is always appreciated!
> 
> See you guys next time!! (Whenever that is, am I right?)


	6. Somewhere in the castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura and Coran find a way to possibly get Lance back to the planet faster than what was initially thought, and no one can find Lance!! It's almost midnight!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY A CHAPTER!!!! And as promised, a longer one than the last!!! Also, sorry about any mistakes or misspells in advance!! Enjoy!!

Allura sighed as she sat in the training room control center. She saw the whole thing happen. Lance freaking out, Lance having a panic attack, and Lance running away after figuring out everyone could see his memories. She wanted to say something, but didn't. She was afraid of what was going on. She didn't understand why someone would do such an awful thing to an innocent child.

"Princess, are you alright?" Coran asked while entering the room.

"Yes Coran. I'm alright." She answered while looking up at him, and then back down to the floor. "Why would someone do such a thing..?"

"I'm not sure princess. Humans are very different than Alteans. We never had a case like this back on Altea." Coran walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Although, I'm sure that we can leave it to the paladins to figure this one out and help Lance."

"I know. I just wish we could do something. Like get to the planet Yerlo faster. The king of the Yerloen's must have a solution to this de-aging problem.." Allura sighed once more. Yerlo was the planet in which the so called "Time Eater" is from. It's the one the paladins went to to get any information on the Galra from their king.

"Yes, I do wish that as well. There's no way we could get there though... Unless.." Coran put his hand on his chin.

"Unless..?" Allura asked with a little shimmer in her eye.

"We could take one of the lions. Not all of us would be able to fit, but the lions are faster than the castle. Also, while you may not be able to open a wormhole big enough for the ship, maybe you could manage a smaller one..?"

"That may be possible.. With my current condition, a wormhole jump with the castle is impossible, but yes, maybe something as small as one of the lion's would work.." Allura started to wonder if they had a solution. "I think I could do it."

"I'll tell the paladins right away. We need to get you as much rest as possible until then though. Let me take you to your room." Coran walked around to the back of the hover chair and started to push it out of the control center.

\------

"I can't find him anywhere!!" Keith yelled as he stomped into the common area.

"You can't find him??" Hunk stood up surprised from the couch, a look of worry etched on his face.

"I can't find him!! I've looked everywhere. The kitchen, the bridge, the pod room, all of the lion hangers, his room, my room, all of our rooms!! I even checked where the crystal is and in the star map room, not to mention his usual favorite hiding spots!" Keith yelled as he paced around the room.

"We have to keep trying. He's 14 right now, and because of what happened in the training room, he's probably lost and scared." Shiro announced to the room. "We should all split up to try and find him. Pidge, Hunk, if you could check the left side of the castle, me and Keith will go search the right. If you find him, bring him back here and speak through the COMM system in here to alert us. If he refuses to leave, try to call for your partner to get help. Worst case scenario... Leave him to get help."

Everyone grimly nodded and said their goodbyes, heading off in different directions to go search for the 14 year old boy. Shiro and Keith stayed together until a split in the hallways came about. The both went their own way, and searched through all the rooms. Searching under piles of old Altean junk, searching behind boxes, searching in laundry piles, under beds, behind doors, everywhere. Where could this boy be??

\------

Shiro sighed as he looked behind yet another stack of boxes to check if the boy was there. He was started to get a little annoyed.

"There are only so many rooms in this castle, he's got to be in one of them.." He said out loud for nothing but reassurance as he left the small storage room. Glancing down the seemingly never ending hallway, he caught a glimpse of another opening in the hallway. Walking over to it, he realized it was a set of stairs. There were many twists and turns in this castle, and there was no question that there were a lot of stairs and elevators leading up and down as well. But none of them had ever really bothered traveling anywhere but the main floors. They rarely went anywhere else out of fear of getting lost. He had no clue where this staircase went.

Taking the risk, Shiro warily started climbing the stairs, Learning that it was actually a spiral stair case. It went on for what seemed like ages, and he was about to give up, but alas, he saw an end to the never ending stairs. Shiro happily hopped to the top, skipping a few steps on his way, and peered out into the new found hallway. This one seemed even longer than the one he just came from. Shiro frowned a bit at that, but non the less started his way down the right. Coming across room upon room of more space junk.

To his adventurous pleasure, there were actually a few rooms he found that interested him. there was another armory, a room filled with various weapons other than their bayards, another room with a smaller star map in it, and even what seemed to be a cabin like room. Filled with various bunk beds. Most likely for when there were a lot of over night aliens in the castle. Even though he found all of these cool rooms, he still hadn't found what he was looking for. Starting to loose hope, he turned down another corner in the hallway. Shiro stood there shocked for a moment. There weren't any other rooms down this hallway, except one. At the very very end of it. Curiosity got the best of him and he headed down the hallway. When he finally reached the door, he held his breath for a moment before putting his hand on the scanner.

The room opened into a very big room. Almost as big as the average ballroom. The wall opposite of him was entirely made out of glass, revealing millions of stars and swirls of colored galaxies. Since being in space, all of them had gotten used to seeing scenes like this. But somehow, it took Shiro's breath away. Mixtures of red, blue, and pink swirled and danced around the empty space. Hints of green and turquoise were also found in the mesmerizing view. The room was littered with various trinkets and old items. Boxes upon boxes filled with old machinery. Dusty chairs and couches were found in random places in the room. The lights were off, meaning the only thing allowing him to see was the light of the various stars and suns from planets scattered around outside of the thick glass.

Shiro slowly started making his way through the piles of junk, being careful where he stepped. Everything was completely silent. Until..

wait, was that..?

a whimper.

a hiccup.

a sob.

Lance.

Shiro followed the noise to a couch at the very corner of the room. On it was Lance, huddled up and covering his ears. Tears in his eyes, and his head buried in his legs.

"Lance!" Shiro ran towards the couch and quickly crouched down in front of the sobbing boy. "Lance! Lance, it's me Shiro, what's wrong?" Shiro placed a hand on Lance's shoulders, but immediately regretted it as Lance's head shot up so fast Shiro was worried about whip Lash, and Looked at Shiro with the most heartbreaking expression he had ever seen. Fear filled the boy's bright blue eyes, and Lance pushed his hand away and started to try and scoot off the couch.

"Lance! Calm down! It's just me Shiro! What's wrong??" Shiro said, trying not to touch Lance again but block him from running away. Who knows when they'd find him if he ran again.

"I've never seen you before in my life! Get away from me!" Lance shouted and was trying to slip under Shiro's arm.

Realization hit Shiro like a wall of bricks. Was it past twelve? Had Lance found this room, and de-aged all alone? How long had they been searching?!?!

"Lance, I need to you to calm down, okay? I'm not going to hurt you. I want to help. I can explain where you are right now if you calm down."

"Let me through! Go away!!" Lance was still trying to get past Shiro, crying even more with tears of frustration.

Lance. Lan- LANCE!!" Shiro called out as the boy somehow slipped through his grasp and started to run out of the room. Shiro cursed under his breath as he shot up and started running after him. The boy ran up to the door and put his hand on the scanner, (wait how did he know how to do that? Duh, its a giant hand and a door without a handle. How else would you open it.) and ran out into the hallway. Shiro ran after him, and watched the boy conveniently ran down the first opening in the hallway he came across, which was luckily the stair case back down to the main floor.

Picking up his pace, Shiro ran down two stairs at a time to try and catch up with Lance. How was this kid so darn fast?!? Reaching the end of the staircase, Lance took a right and so did Shiro.

"Stop following me! I don't know who you are! Go away!!" Lance yelled back as he continued down another corner.

"Lance! Please stop running!! I'm not going to hurt you I just want to help!" Shiro called pleadingly as he started to run out of breath.

"Shiro? Did you find Lance?" He heard a voice call from down the hall as Keith emerged from one of the various rooms.

"KEITH!! Grab him!!!" Keith's face lit up in realization as he started running towards Lance. They had him trapped in that section of the hallway now.

Lance's face turned into pure fear as he turned back around to head the other way, but saw Shiro still running after him. Not knowing what to do, Lance sunk to the floor as tears started springing once again from his eyes. He backed up into the wall on the right, pushing so hard up against it he was basically trying to become one with the wall.

"What do you people want from me!?! Leave me ALONE!!!" Lance screamed as he hid his face in his hands. Keith's face turned into worry as he realized what was going on. They both caught up to the sobbing boy and bent down to try and calm him down.

"lance, its okay, okay? We aren't going to hurt you, we just want to help you. We know you're scared right now, but we promise, we're your friends." Keith whispered as his hands hovered over Lance's shoulder's. Afraid to touch him.

"He's right. We just want to explain what's going on, okay?"

Lance looked up at the both of them, tears and snot running down his red face. "Who are you..? Where am I?" Lance chocked out while wiping the tears off his face with his now very loose hanging shirt. It basically went down to his mid thigh. Although, he had rolled up the sleeves and his jeans which were still somehow hanging to his body and not falling off.

"Right now you're in something called the castle of lions. My name is Shiro, and this is Keith. We're also in space, if you hadn't somehow figured that out from the amazing view in the room I found you in. You're part of a group called Voltron, and we're saving the universe. But when we were on a mission, you gotten bitten by a creature called the Time Eater. You've been de-aging one year everyday for the past 4 days. And when you de-age, you can't remember anything past that age. That's why you don't know what's going on right now." Shiro explained as simply as he could while Keith nodded along.

Lance looked sort of astounded but mostly afraid. And yet zero hint of disbelief in his eyes. How this boy could be so trusting, no one will know.

"How did I.. We, get here..?" Lance asked while looking up at Keith.

"That's a story for maybe when you are more comfortable." Keith smiled a bit at Lance.

Lance nodded and started to stand up. Both Keith and Shiro put there hands out as he wobbled a bit, but stood up non the less. Keith and Shiro both stood up slowly, and Keith even held a hand out for Lance to take. Lance surprisingly took it. Keith and Shiro both shared a nod, before silently heading back down the hallway to go back to the common room.

"So Lance, what do you remember?" Shiro warily asked as they walked.

"I remember being at home."

"Okay... Anything else..?"

Lance frowned.

"I remember being scared." Both Keith and Shiro frowned at that. They had seen a snippet of what went on in Lance's house, but they still weren't exactly sure what happened, how long it went on for, who else in the house knew or was also possibly abused. They didn't really know anything.

They soon reached the common room, finding Hunk and Pidge both standing in there.

"Where else could he be..? Do you think they found him?"

"I'm not sure.. maybe we should ask through the COMM's to see if- LANCE!!!" Pidge shouted when she finally realized Shiro and Keith had entered the room with the exact boy they were all looking for. She almost cried tears of joy as she ran right over there. Hunk following closely behind.

Lance, startled, let go of Keith's hand and ran behind him. Shiro, finally noticing how short Lance was as a 13 year old. He was now a full head shorter than Keith. This kid apparently had a major growth spurt when he hit puberty.

"Calm down guys. He's still scared. We don't want to over crowd him, okay?" Shiro watched a Pidge and Hunk both slowed their pace to a walk and stopped a few feet in front of Keith, Shiro, and Lance.

"Let's all sit down on the couch and discu-"

"Hello paladins!!!" Coran's voice interrupted Shiro's through the COMM's and they all turned to look up at the ceiling, where the voice was coming from. "I have news! Some good, some bad! Good news, the princess and I have found a way to get Lance to the planet Yerlo faster, which is the planet where this all started! Bad news, Not all of us can go."

All of the paladins but Lance shared a happyish look as they continued to listen to what Coran was saying.

"Meet me in the bridge, and we will discuss this further! Coran, out!" The cheerful voice was replaced by a sound of short static before disappearing completely.

"Did you hear that!?!? This could be our chance!!" Pidge cheered.

"I wonder what the method is!" Hunk piped in.

"it doesn't matter. As long as it get's one of us there faster." Keith chimed.

"Guys."

"Aww. Why can't all of us go? I call dibs!" Hunk raised his hand.

"Hey! There's no calling dibs!" Pidge replied.

"GUYS!" Shiro shouted and everyone turned to look to him. "We don't even know if it'll be just one of us or a few of us going. Heck, we don't even know the method of transportation yet! But that doesn't matter right now. Right now, we have to get to the bridge so we can actually figure it out and discuss it. Okay?"

All but Lance nodded their head as they made their way to the bridge. Lance gave Keith a confused look as he held out his hand again for Lance to take.

"We're going to find a way to reverse this, okay?" Keith said with a gentle smile.

Lance, confused, slowly nodded and took Keith's hand.

Keith stole a glance down at the tan boy. His face was mostly etched with fear, and his feet trudged along the floor. Eyes downcast and still red from crying. Keith sighed a bit and bit his lip. He saw a bit of himself in Lance. He really didn't take himself as the comforting type, but here he was. Surprisingly the best out of the team. He had a lot of panic attacks as a child. being in the system for foster care, he saw a lot of different families. None of them every abused him or was mean to him, but they definitely weren't the nicest people. He's seen and had many panic attacks so he knows what to do in the situation.

Keith smiled to himself a bit. For once, he was the one helping Lance. For once, he was the one calming down the boy who always calmed others down. For once, he was actually glad he was in the foster care system.

And for once, he was going to be there for his friend.

Or maybe just a little more than a friend....

Keith blushed and mentally scolded himself for that one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys!! I am sooo so sorry it's taking me this long to get chapters out. I knew as soon as I started this I was really only doing it for fun, and while I do enjoy writing, it's definitely not something I would ever consider going into. Alas, I do really like this story and I am happy with it so far. I'm glad you guys are enjoying it! I really really like the way this chapter turned out. I also finally added in the name of the planet they went to! I never really thought about it before but just recently realized I should probably have one ^^' I just made it up literally as I was writing it lol.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I did writing it. feedback is always appreciated. I love hearing your suggestions and thoughts about the story!!
> 
> Tysm for reading, and I'll see ya guys next time!!
> 
> Hopefully that will be soon, but who knows XD
> 
> bye!


	7. Gone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The paladins finally hear the solution to their problem, they can get Lance to the planet Yerlo! But who will go on the mission? And what awaits for them once they're there?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MY GOODNESS GUYS!!!!!! I am soooo freaking sorry it has been so long since I uploaded a chapter!!! So much has been going on in my life right now and I wanted to work on this but I just couldn't find the time or motivation to write. I was going to put that this was on hiatus on the description but I kept saying, I'm going to do it soon. I'm going to do it soon!
> 
> I never did ^^'
> 
> BUUUT I FINALLY GOT TO IT!!!! I'm sorry this chapter is a little shorter than usual also! Usually they're around 3000 words but this one is around 2100. I was going to write more but I just wanted to post SOMETHING you know?
> 
> Anyway, thank you so so much for your patience!!!! I am so sorry it took so long!! And sorry in advance for however many spelling/grammar mistakes there may be in here!!!
> 
> Also P.S., I'm not really sure if Coran can open wormholes? So let's just say in this world he can't XD I'm pretty sure he can't but I also remember something happening in which he did open a wormhole...?? I'm not sure but yeah lol

"So basically what you're saying is you can make a wormhole big enough for one of our lion's to go through?" Pidge asked as Allura finished explaining her plans of how to get them to planet Yerlo faster.

"Yes. That is exactly what I am saying." Allura replied.

"I thought you said you weren't feeling well. Are you sure you're up to it Princess?" Shiro asked with a hint of concern. Of course he wanted to get Lance back to planet Yerlo faster, but not if it came from the health of someone else.

"I am feeling much better now. Thanks to Coran taking care of me, I would say I should be free of this cold sooner than we thought!" Allura said with a smile and Coran smiled as well, silently thanking the princess for mentioning him.

"Well if you're sure, then we'll do it. Who's going to be going?" Shiro asked. they had four lions, so which would be the one to take the journey? Perhaps Hunk? He knew Lance very well and could be able to calm him down if something happened. Maybe Pidge? She knew what had to be done and how to do it fast. Or perhaps himself? He was their leader.

"I was thinking Keith could go."

"Whaaat?" Shiro blurted out childishly to Allura's statement.

"Well, yes. He has been the one to calm Lance down this entire time. It makes sense for him to be the one. Not to mention his lion is the fastest." Allura pointed out. All of these statements were in fact true.

"Yes that does make sense now that I think about it." Shiro admitted. He forgot that KEITH has been the most helpful throughout this whole thing. Not that he had anything against Keith of course, it was just... honestly surprising.

"You really want me to go?" Keith's voice chimed in and they all turned to look at him. Lance stayed cowered behind him, still holding his hand.

"Yes Keith. You are the perfect choice. Of course you shouldn't go alone. One of the other paladins can accompany you." Allura spoke to Keith before turning to the others. "So which shall it be?"

"Shiro would be the best pick since he IS the leader." Pidge replied while adjusting her glasses.

"I guess that would make sense.." What about you Hunk? What do you think?" Shiro asked.

"I think it's a good choice too. I mean I really want to go but like, that jungle TERRIFIES me. Like what if I get bit by the Time Eater too?! Then we'll have two de-aging people! That's one less pilots and one less person other than Lance! I don't think I'd be able to make it through the jungle either. What if I trip and fall down a cliff? What if I hurt myself? What if I don't make it out Alive! What if-"

"HUNK. We get it buddy." Shiro interrupted him and put his hand on Hunk's shoulder. "Just remember though, that stuff could happen to any of us. Whichever one of us goes needs to be careful."

"Yes, that is very true Shiro. Each one of us needs to be careful on this journey and every one that lies ahead. Any one of us could die or get hurt in a moments notice." Allura states and Hunk visibly gulps.

"If it makes you feel any better Hunk, I will go if everyone else agrees." Shiro says as he looks to everyone for their agreement. One by one they all nod, except Lance.

"What about you Lance? Do you want me to go?" Shiro asks as he turns to him and squats down to his eye level.

"You're asking me..?" Lance looks up at Shiro with shock in his eyes.

"Of course. Your opinion matters just as much as everyone else's." Shiro says kindly and smiles.

Lance stares at him for a second, before his eyes tear up a bit.

"Oh no, I am so sorry. Did I say something wrong?" Shiro asks worried, reaching out to touch Lance. Just before touching him he hesitates before pulling back, Thinking it might not be the best idea.

"No, you didn't say anything wrong. It's just, no one has every said that to me before..." Lance says. His last sentence barely above a whisper. If you weren't really listening you couldn't have heard it. 

Everyone in the room visibly deflates. What had this child been through? What had LANCE been through? They knew it wasn't good but, what was the extent to it? How is it that no one had ever told him, at least before this age, that his opinion mattered? Had no one ever even ASKED Lance his opinion?

"O-Okay.." Shiro whispers. "So what do you think? Will you allow me to accompany you and Keith?"

Lance does nothing but a simple nod as he wipes his eyes. Shiro takes it as a good enough answer and stands up, putting his hand on Keith's shoulder before turning to look at everyone else.

"We're ready when you are."

\------

"You ready princess?" Keith asks while sitting in the chair of his lion. Shiro is standing behind him with Lance.

"As ready as I'll ever be!" Allura replies on the COMM's in a chipper voice.

"Okay, then let's do this." Keith replies as he watches a wormhole appear in front of him, just big enough for his lion. He turns to Shiro for approval to move ahead, and does so when Shiro nods. Pushing on the thrusters, the red lion speeds through the wormhole just before it closes.

"We made it through." He states and looks back to see if Shiro and Lance are okay. Lance looks alright, for the most part. A little shaken up, but in one piece. Shiro looks... like nothing even happened. He's fine.

"Good. I'm sorry I couldn't hold it open longer." Allura replies and Keith hears her take a few deep breathes. Opening wormholes must take so much strength.

"It's okay princess. As long as we made it through you did perfect." Shiro speaks from behind him and Keith nods even though he knows Allura isn't using the video chat their lions have and she can't see him.

"Well, I've done my part. Now you do yours. Get to planet Yerlo and find that cure." Allura says in a more stern voice.

"AND BE SAFE!!" Keith hears Hunk yell from what seems like a little farther away before an, "Ouch!". Keith smiles a bit. Pidge.

"Got it." Keith replies simply and hits the thrusters.

Just a little up ahead was planet Yerlo. Just as beautiful as before. The planet was covered in jungle and from afar looks somewhat like Earth except the opposite in terms of how much area each color covered. Instead of blue covering most of the planet, green did. The planet had pure white clouds circling above the planet and two moons that orbited the sphere with grace. The planet was also much much larger than the Earth. It was probably around the size of Jupiter. There were three suns in this solar system, and they all shined as bright as their sun.

"It looks like Earth.." Lance said from behind.

"Yeah. It does." Keith replied and Shiro laughed slightly.

Landing was not as hard as before since Keith actually KNEW where to land this time. Last time they came here, they spent what seemed like ages just looking for a meadow or something to land. They finally found a clearing, but it was almost an hour away from the village. Hence the long journey they had to take. It seems like they'd be taking it again. Unfortunately.

"Coming in for landing." Keith warned Shiro and Lance before pulling up his thrusters and landing as gently as possible on the small clearing they found. Lance shook a bit and even almost fell over, but non the less was fine.

"We're here Allura." Keith said through the COMM's.

"Splendid! Tell us when you get to the camp or if you have any trouble.”

"Roger." Keith replied and got up from his position in the pilot chair to join his comrades. Looking down at Lance, he noticed how terrified he looked. Made sense, this was a scary mission even for him. He wasn't even the thirteen year old here! He couldn't imagine how Lance was feeling. In a strange place with strange people he's never met before. Not to mention the fact that his memories from this age were clearly not pleasant. Keith frowned a bit before he noticed Shiro's hand come down and pat Lance on the head, who in return blushed a bit.

"Okay gang!" Shiro said with an enthusiastic smile. "Let's get going!"

\------

Walking in the jungle was just as unpleasant as last time. There were weird alien bugs and animals all around them, accompanied by equally as strange alien plants. Everything seemed, so alive. Vines were moving like they were an animal and things like bushes and leaves seemed to move on their own. The plants, for the most part, were all green excluding some of the more strangely colored and bio-luminescent ones. Strange creatures would often cross their path and both Shiro and Keith just hoped they weren't anything poisonous or dangerous like the Time Eater.

Shiro cautiously stepped over a thorny plant before looking back to see how Keith and Lance were doing. Keith was helping Lance climb down from a big rock they had to jump over. Lance looked extremely terrified but also extremely endeared by the world around them. Keith just looked worried for Lance's life.

"This is amazing.." Lance said as he slid into Keith's awaiting arms. Keith gently put Lance down but looked like he instantly regretted it as Lance started to run over to one of the huge bio-luminescent plants.

"Wait!" Keith yelled running after him.

The plant seemed to come to life and its humongous leaves curled around Lance and lit up his whole face with an electric blue. Keith abruptly stopped as he heard Lance giggle. GIGGLE! Lance literally giggled as this plant seemed to be consuming the small child. The boy giggled and did a small spin as he lifted up his hands to touch the giant leaves and small blue fireflies seems to dance around him. He looked, truly happy.

Shiro did a small laugh as well before speaking up. "Lance, that looks like a lot of fun but you have to be careful. We don't know whats harmful here and what's not. And we need to get back to that village as soon as possible, okay?"

"Okay.." Lance pouted a bit before stepping out of the circle of leaves and walking back over to Keith who held his hand out to Lance. He gladly took it.

They continued on for what seemed like hours before finally reaching something they recognized as being close to the village. It was a big tree that looks sort of like a cherry blossom tree, although its flowers were a bright purple and the trunk was a Burgundy like color. Lance looked in awe of the tree as they stood there looking at its swirling branches.

"we're almost there! Come on!" Keith yelled happily. They were almost there. Almost back to the village that could hold an answer to what might bring back Lance. Their Lance. HIS Lance. The Lance that was seventeen and in dating range! Keith squatted down and folded his hands back before looking at Lance with shining eyes.

"Get on." Keith smiled a genuine smile before motioning again for Lance to get on his back so he could give him a piggy back. Lance looked at him for a second, a little fear in his eyes, and looked up at Shiro who nodded. As all fear seemed to be washed away, Lance smiled and hopped on to Keith's back. Laughing as Keith abruptly stood up and adjusted Lance in his hold.

"Here we go!" Keith said and smiled before taking off running, Lance's laughs resounding in his ears from behind. Keith laughed back.

Shiro laughed as well before chasing after them. They ran quickly past plants upon plants as they neared closer and closer to the village. It was so close! A possible cure or at least some answers! Keith bounced Lance on his back a little bit and laughed as Lance whooped. He was actually having fun. For the first time since this whole de-aging thing happened Lance was ACTUALLY having fun. Keith smiled at the thought.

They finally reached the final thicket. Keith laughed and closed his eyes as he excitedly pushed back the bushed that revealed the town.

He heard a gasp.

"What's wrong?" Keith opened his eyes and looked up at Lance. He looked terrified. Scared. Frightened. Keith's eyes knitted together as he examined Lance's face. Finally, he slowly turned to look at what Lance's eyes were locked onto. And he suddenly realized why Lance had that awful look.

The town was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!!!!! Once again I am so sorry for how long this chapter took to come out! I thank everyone who has been here from the beginning and I also thank new comers who took the time to give my story a shot as well!!!
> 
> THANK YOU SO SO MUCH YOU GUYS!!!!!
> 
> I really hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, and I'll see you guys next time!!!! Ty!!! <33

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed the chapter!!! If I made any mistakes I would love some feedback!! Also, nice comments are always appreciated!!! They make my day and make me more motivated to write!! I hope you enjoyed this, there's more to come!!


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